Postcards from the Past

Postcards from the Past is a series of postcard conversations based on family memories and imaginings about the ‘delicate’ children who, in 1948, travelled from Manchester and Salford to  Switzerland to stay for three months with Swiss families to improve their health. 

Inspired by the postcards that many Swiss hosts sent back to the children’s families in Manchester and Salford, Postcards illustrates how personal stories ripple across the generations in ways that connect us not only to the past but the future.

As a result of seeing the archive film which recorded the children’s return to Manchester, a group of ‘delicate’ children and their relatives are sharing reawakened family stories and memories in the form of postcards, which will be published on the website over the coming months, together with other writing and images that help tell their family stories.

‘Postcards’ is encouraging the ‘delicate’ children who are now in their seventies and eighties to:

tell their stories and celebrate their experiences

record their memories and share them with family members 

It is  also encouraging relatives and younger family members to think about these experiences:

by asking questions

putting themselves in their parents/grandparents/relative’s shoes

talking about how they would feel if similar experiences were to happen to them now.

Talking, listening, connecting: sharing family stories and becoming part of Manchester and Salford’s history

Comments from young men who took part in the Passions project

 

‘Coming here every Wednesday morning was good. When I first did it I thought I wasn’t going to like it, but it was good, I wanted to do it’.

‘At the start I didn’t think I would be into something like this but then I ended up liking it’.

‘I’m proud of really wanting to complete the films’.

‘We got more sensible. When we first started we used to act silly, mess about, and then we started taking it a bit more seriously. When you learn how to do it, it’s pretty good’.

 

Tommy Mcdonagh, Moston and Collyhurst Lads Club ABC

‘The project, it opens new doors for them. When they went to look round the university you could see they were looking at it, it opened their eyes. One of them said “I might go to college, if I do well next year and keep doing it, I could go to uni”. There’s no chance he’d have thought that if he’d not visited, not a chance. It’s opened their eyes and they won’t settle for what people say they should do. Now they can choose to do whatever they want to’.

 

Visit to the Archives at Manchester Library

‘It’s the first time I’ve been anywhere like that [the archive]. It was good. And we wouldn’t have done stuff like going to see that play. We went to the library and it’s got stuff about the gym a hundred years ago. We saw that film about Brian [club manager] and found he’d made his own short film, 30 or 40 years ago, filmed here at this gym. I’ve learned about the history of this gym and stuff about people who used to come here. It’s good, interesting, the old clips’.

Filming

‘We’ve learned how to be interviewed without looking stupid, more con dence in front of the camera. Sometimes we used to mumble or keep moving around whereas now we know what to do’.

‘I can speak to new people now’.
‘I thought I’d be dead cringey and feel stupid but it feels good’.

‘I was interested in sport but this opens up a whole other circle’.

‘I would maybe carry on lming for boxing shows, you could lm it and make money from that’.

‘I’ve never done something like this – technology and lming, so would consider it in future, now we’ve made lms and interviewed people, it’s the beginning of something’.

At first I was hoping it [the film] wasn’t going to get on anything like Twitter or Facebook but I wouldn’t be bothered now if it did’.

Andy Cheshire, FC United

‘This has been a fantastic experience for the boys involved. They have had opportunities that none of their peers have had and have learnt new skills that can be used for the rest of their lives. The work they have completed is a credit to them and the club and they should all be extremely proud.’

Passions of Youth Awards Night: Film Premiere, Celebration and Reception, 23rd November 2015

Passions of Youth Awards Night: Film Premiere, Celebration and Reception

23rd November 2015 at FC United of Manchester, Broadhurst Park, 310 Lightbowne Road, Moston, Manchester

 

The Film Premiere, Celebration and Reception for the Passions of Youth project took place on the 23rd November 2015 at FC United, Moston, Manchester.

The event was introduced by Sue Reddish, the project’s Creative Director, who welcomed an audience of nearly 100 guests to the screening of two films made by young footballers from FC United, To Be Continued, and by boxers at Collyhurst and Moston Lads’ Club, A 100 Years and Still Fighting.

Sue explained how the ambitious year-long project had involved the arts team working alongside the young men, their coaches, archivists, youth workers, historians and staff at Manchester Metropolitan University. The aim was to work with groups of young men who shared a leisure passion, be that football, boxing, basketball, music or fishing – and encourage them to reflect on the wider benefits of pursuing these interests.

The Passions project also wanted to explore whether these were similar or different to what other young men from previous generations experienced, so the young men also interviewed older people and researched archives, using history as a tool to understand the present. It was, as she described, a very ambitious project, but one which in many ways surpassed the team’s aspirations.

The young men learned new skills in all aspects of film making and performance – they had to research, devise, write, perform, record their work and communicate their ideas clearly, skills that along with those they learned pursuing their hobby should stand them in good stead in the future.

Sue pointed out that while not everyone can be a champion boxer, professional footballer or film maker, everyone on the project was able to have a go, to develop their confidence, learn new things about themselves and see what the support of others could offer – valuable skills that she hoped they would take into future employment, study or their leisure pursuits.

Sue also explained how the learning had not been just one way. She had found out about basketball strategy, stood ringside at her first pro-boxing match, and been told in no uncertain terms that it was time she watched ‘Rocky’ a film which, until then, had completely passed her by!

Jim Dalziel, the community film-maker, found out more about football – fact and fiction – and now regularly regaled anyone who would listen about the ‘curse of Man City’!

Most importantly, what everyone observed was these young men learning about themselves and what they could achieve when they put their minds to it. Both the Boxers and the Footballers brought their enthusiasm, skills, humour and commitment to the Passions project, to make films they should be proud of.

 

Len Johnson ‘Fighter’ – King’s Arms Theatre, Salford

After finding out about Len Johnson at the Working Class Movement Library in the last session, this week we went to see a play about him at the King’s Arms Theatre.
They play covered aspects of Johnson’s life and work as a boxer and political activist.
Because of the colour bar in Britain at the time, Len was never allowed to fight for an official title.

Len Johnson Archive

This week we visited the Working Class Movement Library (WCML) in Salford, to find out about Manchester boxer a political activist, Len Johnson.

Jason Roche, an Historian at MMU, and ex-amateur boxer and boxing coach, also went along to find out more.

The group found a lot of interesting photographs of Johnson, and they also found out more about travelling boxing booths, which Len used to fight in, and which are an important part of boxing history.

We’ll be thinking about how to use some of this information in our films in future sessions.

Exploring Archives+

This week, the boxers visited Archives+ at Manchester Central Library, to find out more about the history of boxing in the region.

They met Heritage Collections Manager, David Govier, and had a behind the scenes tour of where a lot of the material is kept.

The lads looked at old maps of the local area, as well as trying out some of the new technology there, giving access to digitised records.

Beginning of Boxing

By Callum Baker

I started boxing when I was 15 and had my first fight when I was 16. I started boxing because I had nothing to do after school and my cousin had been boxing for a while at Collyhurst and Moston Boxing Club so I decided to join.

Boxing has gave me many skills what I can use in the ring but it has also made me more disciplined. Boxing requires a strict life style which you have to follow, getting up early, eating the right kinds of foods and training. You have to do this everyday when you’re training for a fight so that’s how you become more disciplined through boxing.

Now I have had 7 amateur fights and aiming for many more to reach my goal and turn professional.

My Day at MMU

By Robson Buckley

Truthfully, I woke up this morning and I didn’t want to come to MMU. However, I have had a really good time and I have met some really interesting people. We spoke about football, which is really important to me, as this is what I do and what I am passionate about! We looked around the MMU buildings which I really enjoyed and I have seen some things that i have never seen before that has really inspired me.

Robson plays football for FC United and Manchester.

FC United of Manchester

By Dominik Williams

FC United of Manchester are a club in their building stages and are a fan owned club looking to establish themselves in the English game.

FC United have 4 different teams they have the: First team, the reserves, the youth team and even a women’s team and for a club that hasn’t been around for very long they have made some excellent progress in the few years that they have been around.

The first team are currently top of the Northern Premier Division league with 8 games remaining and have a 7 point gap between them and the team in second place. FC United’s fans are some of the best in the non league scene averaging around 2,000 every match. Whether that be on a Saturday afternoon or on a Tuesday night the fans never fail to show up as they are making a stand against the ownership of Manchester United and are pushing the club to higher and better places. The reserve team also are top of their league with only a few games left in their league as well with the guidance of Rhodri Giggs are trying to push higher and get some of their players into the first team in the coming years.

The Youth team, after a difficult start to the year, are now sitting in second in the league and are only 3 points behind top spot. Yesterday the team played a match and won convincingly 9-1 with goals from Sam Summerbee who got 3 goals, Dominik Williams who got 2, and also goals from Robson Buckley, Boris, Toby Wright and Zac Cooper.